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SAN DIEGO (AP)—Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Shaun Marcum(notes) was chilling in the
visitor’s clubhouse, his night’s work finished, when he heard on the TV
broadcast that Petco Park had been hit by an earthquake.

“First earthquake. That was pretty fun,” Marcum said after the Jays beat
the San Diego Padres 6-3 on Monday. “I didn’t feel it until they said something
on TV. The TVs were moving a little bit and I started floating back and forth a
little bit. That’s always fun.”

Play stopped momentarily in the eighth inning as Petco Park swayed during
the magnitude-5.7 quake that was centered about five miles southeast of Ocotillo
in Imperial County—about 85 miles east of San Diego.

David Eckstein(notes) had just grounded out in the bottom of the inning when the
stadium began shaking. The next batter, Chase Headley(notes), stayed out of the
batter’s box for a few seconds, then stepped in.

The public address announcer asked that everyone remain calm. The crowd
cheered.

Most fans felt the quake. The right-field foul pole swayed back and forth,
as did TVs in the press box. Some players, such as Blue Jays second baseman
Aaron Hill(notes), said they didn’t feel it. Manager Cito Gaston said he felt the
dugout move side-to-side.

“They happen so fast that there’s nothing you can do,” Gaston said.

John Buck(notes) homered twice and Hill had three doubles and three RBIs for the
Blue Jays, who jumped all over Jon Garland(notes) when he started to struggle while
pitching on three days’ rest.

Buck hit a two-run shot off Garland in Toronto’s four-run second, and a
leadoff drive against Sean Gallagher(notes) in the eighth, giving him 11 this season.
It was his eighth career multihomer game and third this season.

The Blue Jays had lost six of seven, a span in which they were outscored
41-13.

Hill hit a two-run double with two outs in the second to give the Blue Jays
a 4-0 lead against Garland (6-5), who was pitching on short rest after starting
the second game of a doubleheader at the New York Mets on Thursday night.

Garland threw 26 pitches in the first inning and 34 in the second. He
allowed Lyle Overbay’s(notes) single ahead of Buck’s homer to left. He walked Marcum
with two outs and allowed DeWayne Wise’s(notes) double ahead of Hill’s double to right.

Garland struck out seven and walked four, throwing 114 pitches in five
innings. He was angry because he thought he had Marcum struck out on a 2-2 pitch
in the second but umpire Larry Vanover called it a ball.

“It’s upsetting. He called that pitch for me, then he didn’t call it,”
Garland said. “Just be consistent. Larry Vanover was not consistent tonight.

“I still had a chance to get out of that inning, but I mentally lost it. I
was frustrated, upset because I thought I did what I needed to do.”

Marcum (6-3) allowed solo homers by Jerry Hairston Jr.(notes) and Adrian Gonzalez(notes)
among his six hits in seven innings. He yielded three runs, two earned, while
improving to 6-1 in eight starts after Blue Jays losses.

Marcum escaped a bases-loaded jam with no outs in the seventh, allowing just
one run on a groundout by Tony Gwynn(notes) Jr.

“That was our chance,” Padres manager Bud Black said. “Bases loaded, no
outs, and we only got one run. A big hit, anywhere in there, would have proved
to be a different ballgame.”

Hairston homered off the balcony on the third level of the Western Metal
Supply Co. brick warehouse in the left-field corner leading off the third, his
fourth. Gonzalez hit an opposite-field shot to left leading off the fourth, his
15th.

Kevin Gregg(notes) pitched the ninth for his 16th save in 19 chances.

Hill also had an RBI double in the sixth.

NOTES: Gaston said Blue Jays RHP Dustin McGowan(notes), who has been sidelined
since July 2008 because of shoulder surgery and a subsequent knee injury, heard
a pop in his shoulder during a rehab outing on Sunday and was shut down after
eight pitches. He had an MRI exam on Monday and the team should know the results
on Tuesday. … San Diego’s Yorvit Torrealba(notes) was ejected in the ninth for
arguing with umpire Larry Vanover after taking a called third strike. … Black
said SS Everth Cabrera(notes), on the disabled list for the second time this season
with a strained right hamstring, is likely to go out on a three-game minor
league rehab assignment later this week.

ST. LOUIS (AP)—Albert Pujols(notes) has a souvenir from the St. Louis Cardinals’
latest victory: a good-sized welt on the left side of his neck.

The three-time NL MVP took one off the noggin on a perfect day at the plate,
stand-in cleanup hitter Ryan Ludwick(notes) homered and the Cardinals beat the Seattle
Mariners 9-3 on Monday night behind a reworked batting order.

“You could have written that group any way you wanted to and we would have
had some runs,” manager Tony La Russa said.

Pujols singled three times and walked twice as the Cardinals bounced back
after totaling 19 runs during a 1-5 West Coast swing that dropped them out of
the NL Central lead. Plus, he stayed in the game after a throw to the plate
struck him near the left ear flap in the fifth.

“Took it like a champ,” Ludwick said in admiration.

Although Pujols’ ear flap absorbed some of the impact, La Russa said the
team was been worried initially.

“We kept asking, ‘Are you dizzy, do you have a headache or anything? And he
said ‘No, no, no,”’ La Russa said. “He’s a tough guy, he’s proven that over
and over again.”

Pujols said simply: “I’m all right.”

Ludwick finished with four RBIs and Adam Wainwright(notes) (9-4) pitched into the
eighth after a shaky start. Matt Holliday(notes) also was a success batting second for
the first time in his career, getting two hits and scoring twice.

“Listen, bro, he’s the head of this organization and he’s the one that
drives the ship,” Pujols said of La Russa’s batting order. “As a player, I’m
happy just to be in the lineup. It doesn’t matter where he puts us, you’ve got
to perform.

“We know that we have to get it going.”

The Mariners have lost six of seven, fizzling after Ichiro Suzuki(notes) hit the
second pitch of the game for his 31st career leadoff homer—tying Chuck
Knoblauch for 10th place. Suzuki also doubled in the eighth for his major
league-leading 31st multihit game.

Suzuki was the first left-handed hitter to homer off Wainwright this season.

“I’ve heard he could win the home run derby if he wanted to,” Wainwright
said. “Everybody knows he has power, especially on the pitch I threw him.”

Luke French(notes) (0-1) replaced struggling Ian Snell(notes) in Seattle’s rotation and
allowed four runs in four innings.

“I wanted to go deeper and the first couple of innings were pretty rough,”
French said. “The last two innings, I felt like I made the adjustment, made
better pitches, got more ground balls, but I was definitely frustrated with the
number of quality strikes.”

Colby Rasmus(notes) homered in a four-run fifth off Snell, one of the runs scoring
when Pujols broke for the plate on David Freese’s(notes) chopper to third and was
struck by Jose Lopez’s(notes) errant throw.

Pujols was helped off the field by teammate Yadier Molina(notes) after receiving
treatment from a trainer, but just moments later was chatting with teammates in
the dugout.

The Mariners had two runs on three hits in the first against Wainwright, and
no runs and one hit over the next six innings. It was Wainwright’s 21st
consecutive home start with three or fewer runs on his line, the longest streak
in major league history, according to research by the Elias Sports Bureau.

“You like the way the game started,” Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said.
“To give a guy like Wainwright a lead right back, it took a lot of momentum
away.”

Ludwick batted fourth in place of Holliday, coming off a 3-for-22 trip.
Ludwick hit a three-run homer in the first, a sacrifice fly in the third and
doubled and scored in the fifth.

“I think the main thing is wherever you’re at, just getting a good pitch to
hit,” Ludwick said. “I’m not reading too much into it, obviously. Matt’s a
great hitter.”

NOTES: The Mariners are 15-17 at home and 9-23 on the road. … Entering the
game, Ludwick had a single and no RBIs in 13 career at-bats against Seattle. …
Wainwright is 55-28 in 100 career starts with St. Louis. … Suzuki has 245
interleague hits for fifth on the career list, one more than Ivan Rodriguez(notes).

WASHINGTON (AP)—More kudos for rookie sensation Stephen Strasburg(notes): He’s the
National League player of the week.

The Washington Nationals’ hard-throwing righty was given the honor Monday.
He is 2-0 with 22 strikeouts and a 2.19 ERA in two major league starts.

The 22 strikeouts were the most in the majors last week. Only Karl Spooner
of the 1954 Brooklyn Dodgers has fanned more batters in his first two major
league starts.

Strasburg has already supplied the Hall of Fame with a hat and a ball from
his major league debut. He’s also read the Top 10 list on the “The Late Show
with David Letterman.”

Strasburg beat Cleveland on Sunday despite walking five batters. He is next
scheduled to pitch on Friday against the Chicago White Sox.